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Connecting

June 25th, 2008 | | Posted in Connection, Connector

The other day I had a Skype chat with a friend I know from Twitter. Nice guy, good connection. I finally found out that he worked in the financial sector. Then a light bulb went off in my head. I have a good friend that is really skilled in financial market analysis. So instantly the A.Connector DNA kicks in and I asked my friend on Skype if he would be willing to talk to my friend. He said, “Sure. I’m alway looking for qualified analysts.”

So why am I excited? What benefit is there to me? Well I happen to be big fan of the new bleeding edge economics and not doing evil. There is still one better than that-doing good. Don’t know why, but it always makes me feel good when I can help others connect in a frictionless good fit kind of way. File this under-because that’s how I roll…

Let’s get Acrobatic

June 4th, 2008 | | Posted in Connection

Disclosure-I’m a long time Adobe product lover from my days as a Mac only guy(yes Virginia, I’m on the infernal Winblows machines now too). I’ve had so many discussions with web/geek friends about Adobe and how it’s so incredulous with their engineering/design abilities and strong advantage with Flash platform, that they don’t do more in light of Google’s Documents, Zoho,etc.

Well happy to say that recently they’ve launched Photoshop Express for touching up digital pictures and more recently Acrobat.com as a launching point for Buzzwords, their Word alternative (on flash of course) and Connect Now a collaborative communications suite that allow you and other collaborators to have video and voice chat and see each others desktops,share whiteboard and have option to control others’ desktop/browser as well.

I’ve been testing these and they all seem to offer a lot of promise. The interface for the Buzzwords word processor is pretty sexy, only complaint I have right now is that it didn’t offer ability to change formatting from left to center or right. I might have missed that or it may be on their to do list. In any case. much more robust than Google or Zoho’s similar offering IMHO.

For those that didn’t ask-no I’m trying Plurk because I just don’t care. Sick of the alphabet-soup shiny object of the moment thingie, even with a some what sick Twitter. I’ve been using FriendFeed more

Sometimes a great notion

May 3rd, 2008 | | Posted in Connection

There are times in business where you can still be pleasantly surprised even after you’ve mentally prepared yourself to bang your head against the wall in resignation to the unpleasant reality that nobody is listening to you or cares about what you have to say. in this case it’s a fairly large Taiwan-owned tire company that does a small tire for our customers sporting goods products. We have been doing business with them for the better part of 12 years. They recently decided to shift small tire production to one of their China factories. The only problem is that China has gotten smarter and smarter over the last few years and doesn’t let foreign-owned companies just bring anything they want into China-in this case the existing tooling for our tires! So I wasn’t entirely surprised when my suppliers beautiful dream to shift production over there hit a snag. What did trouble me was when I got a sample from their China factory that was lighter in weight(less material/thinner) which my customer of course reacted to as being unacceptable.

Lo and behold I just got an e-mail showing a very responsible attitude in the form of a notice that they will be running this batch at the Taiwan factory until they get their China line problems sorted out. This makes me a happy camper and enables me to share some reassuring news to an excellent long term customer. Rock on!

Writer’s Block?

April 15th, 2008 | | Posted in Connection

I’m alluding to less frequency of posts here lately. In fact been plenty busy in my business,business blogging, flickr, and my old mainstay web presence. Not to mention a photoblog, and some other odds and ends. Many who maintain blogs claim that Twitter has depleted them or significantly diluted there blogging. I can see some of that. I have been tweeting less. I look at Twitter primarily as dropping by a party or a cocktail lounge. So, fun and refreshing sometimes if I’m in the mood. Yes, I occasionally learn something really significant.

Having just written that I’m reminded of an event during the early days of the Internet. Many people were excited at this new “connection” or connectivity channel. Here in Taichung some expats(a former Vietnam War pilot and one of the first ISP guys here) decide to channel some of their exuberance and get a group going. I forget the name of the group but they knew I was an early adopter of the Internet, having my own website since 1995, e-mail(s), etc. Wow, those were the good old days indeed. Since there were so few doing websites here then I often received inquiries from US based buyer’s but I digress.

The shiny Internet group met at cool restaurant here in town. The owner of the restaurant would find nice houses renovate and furnish them and give them names like “Bird Vs. Man”… So I showed up for the first meeting and the principals: Bruce and David would begin the navel gazing session. It was almost surreal and exaggerated to the point of something inane like,”OK let us begin chanting-M>O>D>E>M,MO>DE>M, MODEMMMMMM.” OK I am getting a little exaggerated but for a reason. They like so many geeks are far more obsessed with the tool than their ability to wield it. I have always been very utilitarian in my approach to tools. That is why I don’t have a collection of various brushes with hairs of different origin-I couldn’t paint if my life depended upon it, much to my chagrin and disappointment.

So here I am in this bleeding edge group and being asked to add my insights to this exciting earth shaking phenomenon called the Internet. I just looked around the room, smiled and said,

“To me the Internet is a window. Like any window I don’t care if it is a branded one like Pella or just the generic variety. Actually, all I really care is that it is clean so it can clearly transmit the light and views from outside that I wish to see. There is a reason that windows use clear glass, they are just a vehicle or channel for allowing glimpses into something significant; namely life outside the space you are inside of and looking out from.”

Hey wanna hear about some cool new app that you can invite all of your friends to join and get paid not to blog while you help Darfur and Tibetan causes? Anyhow, here’s to focusing on life and doing small things within our ability to affect it and the lives of those around us.

Update: I was pointed to an excellent post by Karoli on significant action vs. the inanity of the blogosphere.

No not from the Twitter (pick a color) Team

March 20th, 2008 | | Posted in Connection

I received a Facebook message from Garsen Subramoney someone I know through Facebook and Twitter. he contacted me on quite a serious subject actually, not the inane Ze Frank initiated color team war meme on Twitter. In fact this involves the future of a young democracy, one of the few hopeful spots in a a troubled continent: Africa. In this case South Africa-Garsen’s country. It is quite concerning and maybe merits you reading of the article in it’s entirety.

It seems that the world has a series of challenging forces and factors to deal with: presidential elections in Taiwan and USA, Tibet pushing against Beijing control, and now this political change for the worse in South Africa. Let us be aware of these places and issues and do what ever we can in what ever way we can to try to make a difference. Many would say why bother in this corrupt dystopian world we live in? I’d say that partial idealism is much more hopeful and potentially helpful than complete apathy.

A lesson learned?

March 11th, 2008 | | Posted in Connection

Yesterday I was watching the Chinese Taipei baseball team battle the Canadian national team on the baseball field here in Taichung. The Taiwan team got off to a good start and overall it was quite a good contest. In the latter innings with the score seesawing back and forth between the local and visiting teams, the Canadians got in scoring position and the big Canadian player bulldozed the much smaller Taiwanese catcher. Amazingly, the much smaller Taiwanese catcher held on to ball and successfully tagged out the Canadian runner.The crowd instantly started booing and felt like the big guy was picking on the little guy. In fact many made it a personal thing, like “the big white guy picking on the little Asian guy.”

Oddly, I’ve had some personal experiences like that here. Fortunately, not for many years. There was one time that a local guy and I were heading for the same spot at the same time. To be frank, we were probably playing chicken and guess what? We collided. Now the local guy got all stinky faced and abusive because I was bigger and surely was taking advantage of size… Well surprise surprise. No I didn’t want to hurt the guy, but I have enough common sense not to play chicken with someone much bigger than me if the downside is having it sting.

Back to the baseball game. My wife came in when she heard the furor of the crowd and even she was unhappy with what she saw on the replay screen. My son then informed her that the Canadian player was simply doing what any runner would do and going for broke in a close game and shot at home with catcher blocking the plate. This explained by a loyal Taiwan team fan to his mom.

Sadly, the Canadian team won. The moral of the story-if you want to dance, you need to pay the band. Kudos to that Taiwan catcher for holding on to the ball after being steam-rolled. You rock!
Story link here.

Catching Up

February 21st, 2008 | | Posted in Connection

Sorry it’s been a while since I posted. have been very busy getting caught up on several business related and personal projects. Finally, all major holidays are over so I can just focus on the year ahead. Nice to not be rushing to finish out one year then start then stop for the Lunar New year here. Oh well reality is always going to be there just up to us to deal with it and learn how to not get overwhelmed by it, right?

Some interesting new media projects going on with friends in the US and China. The business projects are between US and China for the most part and involve some of the new services my company added to it’s menu.Hoping to help some great US destinations get some more exposure for outbound China travel.

Have recently hooked up again with some old friends which is always nice. Good to have continuity among the connected connectors. New camera has been wonderful disruptive factor and I’ve been taking some photo video walks to and from work the last several days. I can’t emphasize enough how vital it is sometimes to slow down and take more notice of the people and world around you. What is in your world that you’re excited about right now?

Depth Charge Debut

February 6th, 2008 | | Posted in Connection, New Media Connectors

Depth Charge Discussions is a new video project entered into by myself and Len Edgerly, another indie media friend hailing from Cambridge,MA and Denver,CO. You can watch our first video here dealing with the topic of Len’s experiences with racism growing up in Boston. The next episode will be me sharing on my own experiences growing up in Brooklyn, NY.

Truth in…Basketball?

January 29th, 2008 | | Posted in Connection

It took a desperate housewife to bring some light to this issue: How is NBA basketball different than pro wrestling? In this case French-born Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs has caused his starlet wife Eva Longoria Parker to worry at times when he goes down on the court because she’s never sure when he’s really hurt or just hamming it up for the “sale of flagrant foul call” to the referees.

She says, “Sometimes he acts to get the flagrant foul or, to sell the foul more, he’ll throw himself on the floor and really play it up more than what it is.

“I really don’t know what the difference is so I’m like, ‘Stop laying on the ground if you’re not hurt. Just get up!’

“He’s like, ‘Honey, I have to stay on the ground sometimes.’

“But I get really nervous, it’s nail-biting.”

You can view the rest of post at Dallas Basketball. So what’s up with that? OK Hulk Hogan and the Rock and the current flavors of the day are even more exaggerated but not nearly as different as we once thought. Was Jesse “The Body” Ventura more genuine as Governor of Minnesota than as wrestler?

I guess this brings up the bigger question: Is TV a purely entertainment medium and if so then how do you know what is real and what is entertainment? Just askin.

The Big Post (for now anyway..)

January 24th, 2008 | | Posted in Connection

This has been aggregating inside of my internal drive with built in adrenalin-fired RAM for the last month or so. Lately as I see many of my social media “friends” blogging, on Twitter, Seesmic, Utterz, Podcasting and Vlogging some clarity and focus has percolated to the forefront of my mind.

Back in the early days, when I still listened to Adam Curry’s DSC and Podshow was just about to get started and become our community’s Satan I too began podcasting. The timing qualified me as a 2nd waver (early ‘05) as opposed to my illustrious pioneering brethren who got started in ‘04:Evil Genius Chronicles, Eric Rice and a handful of others. It was all quite exciting and we were a shiny lot. Many used knowledge of recording and recording gear as grand points of navel gazing and inane discourse acting like priests at the sacrament. Probably many podcasters were puzzled why their talking incessantly about all things podcasting and continually name-checking other podcasters wasn’t really of interest to normal non-ubergeek folks.

Even more so in the case of vlogging since there were even greater technical barriers to overcome plus the attitude of,” if your not good looking on camera you don’t belong there,etc.” Not to mention if you want many people to watch and continue watching you needed that elusive “content” thingie.

Fast forward to the future, meaning now:Twitter was born launching micro-blogging (140 character limit) IRC chat with the world,etc. all rolled into one tidy application by the folks who launched Blogger (big success) and Odeo (big failure). Seesmic which is kind of like video twitter where most people talk about some topic (clear,spurious or otherwise) and attempt to reply in spite of the poorly threaded interface of the present Alpha-device. Low video quality standard and mostly banal posts (have provided Loren Feldman much fodder) with not much compelling reason to watch other than the curiosity of seeing Twitter or other social network friends for the first time. Utterz similar thing with audio from phone to blog and alert to Twitter so your friends can follow link and listen (Seesmic also offers this function as well).

So what is happening with all this? When blogging began most people that weren’t fairly hardcore or trained writers wouldn’t venture into those spaces since they didn’t want to be show up for what they were: amateurs. Now with Twitter the barrier to entry has been lowered. Anyone can be some what interesting within 140 character limit or at least comply with the unwritten Net standard-”Don’t Suck!” So more and more people have entered this space, particularly marketing types who pitch their wares(usually self expertise) continually. Some consciously doing this, some not. Many that I encounter are suburban or rural folks that find Twitter far more entertaining than TV because Twitter at it’s best is serving as the “Cheers” of the Web: a fun place to listen to and contribute some banter. Many people on Twitter also blog but a lot more of the classic amateur style: for fun, the most genuine kind anyway.

Likewise the herd is also doing Seemic videos and Utterz audio so the equivalent of simple vlogs and podcasts. Hence the priesthood mystique of the earlier technically enabled crowd is being eroded by pc webcams and mobile phones.

What does it all mean you ask? Simply with the barrier to entry being virtually gone everybody is performing or talking to everybody. Like one big class play with scripts and free improvisation for those willing to go one step further. Is it all good or of merit? No, but neither was all podcasting or vlog/blogging. Is there still room for quality content? Probably even more now that the herd has taken control of the mic, camera and keyboard just maybe a little more challenging to get noticed is all.

Personally I’m happy that these web tools have democratized free expression/speech on the Net so well. It’s a wonderful thing when you find your inner voice and begin to try to let it out in a clear and meaningful way. Even baby’s when googooing are awfully charming and cute, and when they say their first words, boy do we light up with joy when that happens.

So where do I spend most of my time with these tools/devices? Definitely Twitter overall. Believe it or not many interesting things get said and interesting info is shared there. When I have time or am in the mood I’ll join the banter party with gusto. Utterz, sorry since I live in Taiwan not gonna make international calls but my Utterz using friends seem to like it. When notified on Twitter of their audio I rarely follow link. Seesmic, I don’t see it getting traction once it goes beyond the early adopter crowd mainly (even with Mike Arrington and Dave Winer hyping it) because many don’t have that much to say in an interesting fashion or that makes for attractive visual content. So essentially many of these Seesmic posts would work fine as audio posts and then listener could at least multi-task while listening. The time needed to follow all related posts on a topic is daunting and viewing them is maddening, less fun than watching out-takes of Dumb and Dumber. I like using Eyejot not for social media purposes but to send targeted video messages to friends or associates when that works best.

So please file this as my .66 New Taiwan Dollars for the day.

Update: Utterz now can accept audio file from PC and video.